Device for injecting an additive into the output of a carburetor



Jan. 17, 1967 J. A. HOLMAN 3,293,334

DEVICE FOR INJECTING AN ADDITIVE INTO THE OUTPUT OF A CARBURETOR Filed July 8, 1965 INVENTOR JOHN A .HOLM PM ATTORNEYS as possible.

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United States Patent G 3,298 334 DEVICE FOR INJECTINC AN ADDITIVE INTO THE OUTPUT OF A CARBURETOR John A. Holman, 3720 Rawlins St., Dallas, Tex.

Filed July 8, 1963, Ser. No. 293,348 6 Claims. (Cl. 123-119) a new and improved device for injecting an additive into the output of a carburetor feeding an internal combustion engine so that the engine: consumes less fuel; generates more power; has its upper cylinder Walls, valve guides and upper piston rings lubricated to a greater extent; completely ignites the fuel to prevent the formation of carbon and carbon monoxide to the usual extent.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a system for vortically supplying fluid under pressure immediately downstream of a carburetor butterfly valve to achieve thorough mixing of fuel, air and said fluid.

Another object is to provide a system for supplying a fluid, including air, to the fuel-air mixture deriving from a carburetor butterfly valve wherein stalling at idling does not occur because flow of said fluid at idling is terminated.

Briefly describing a preferred embodiment of the present invention, fluid, either all air or an air additive mixture, is supplied under pressure to a chamber or bore located immediately downstream of a carburetor butterfly valve. The fluid is vortically introduced into the bore so that it attains a relatively high velocity close to the center of the bore. By interacting at high velocity with the carburetor output, the fluid causes thoroughmixing of the latter to promote better combustion in the engine.

'The chamber is contained on a plate interposed between the carburetor and manifold. This position enhances mixing because the air-fuel mixture has its smallest pressure subsequent to carburetion.

In the present invention, the velocity of the vortically flowing fluid injected into the mixing chamber is as high This is accomplished initially by utilizing the air intake passing through the cooling fan, such as found with auto radiators. To further increase fluid velocity, a heater is provided just upstream of the bore The heater expands the fluid supplied to the bore so that entry into the bore is at high velocity.

Another feature of the present invention is that engine stalling does not occur at idling even though additional air is supplied to the motor under running conditions. As is well known, the introduction of too much air into an idling internal combustion engine results in stalling because the mixture becomes too lean. According to the present invention, a high air-additive mixture ratio is maintained Whenever the engine is running at speeds above idling and the problem of stalling during idling is circumvented. This is accomplished by preventing the vortical fluid flow during idling by a valve activated in response to the throttle. Hence, the quantity of air supplied to the motor is increased when the motor is throttled to cause better mixing but it is reduced to normal at idling to prevent stalling.

The above and still further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of one specific embodiment thereof, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a partially schematic, partially perspective illustration of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a side sectional view of the air-additive mixing chamber of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a front view of the vanes utilized in the chamber of FIGURE 2 to attain thorough air-additive mixing; and

FIGURE 4 is a side sectiinal view of the valve utilized to connect the additive supply with the mixing chamber of FIGURE 2.

Reference is now made to FIGURE 1 of the drawings wherein there is provided injection plate 11 for mixing an appropriate lubricant, additive or gas with the fuel air mixture emanating from throats 12 of four barrel carburetor 13. Plate 11 is fixed in place between the lower edge of the carburetor, immediately below its butterfly valves 14, and the fuel inlet orifice of manifold 15 by screws 16 extending through aligned threaded bores in the carburetor, injection plate, and manifold. Carburetor 13 and manifold 15 are of the conventional type frequently found on automobiles having internal combustion engines.

Plate 11 includes four vertically extending bores 21-24, each aligned with a respective one of throats 12 so the fuel air mixture deriving from each of the throats passes through the bores prior to entry into manifold 15. Each of bores 21-24 includes a separate 4" diameter inlet orifice 25-28 which communicates with a different one of fluid conducting passages 31-34 (shown in phantom), located interiorly of plate 11. Passages 32 and 33 branch from a common passage 35, having a diameter twice that of the other passages, to reduce reaming costs during manufacture and conserve space. Each of the passages 31, 34 and 35 has its exit port aligned on side 36 to attain ease of mating with heater 41.

Orifices 25-28 and passages 31-34 are arranged so that fluid is discharged into bores or chambers 21-25 substantially tangential with their walls. This causes the fluid injected into bores 21-25 to swirl in a vortical manner to provide a substantial additional combining of the air fuel mixture deriving from throats 12. If an additive is injected into bores 21-24, along with air, thorough mixing of it with the fluid passing through bores 21-24 is also accomplished because of the extreme velocity attained by the additive at the center of the bores.

In order to obtain complete mixing action as described, plate 11 should be located between the carburetor output and manifold inlet orifices. At points further downstream from the manifold inlet orifice, it is more difficult to obtain such a complete mixture because the carburetor fuel air mixture is under greater pressure than at the carburetor outlet orifice, hence would not be influenced as greatly by the vortical fluid injection.

Mating with the exit ports for passages 31, 34 and 35 on side wall 36 are output orifices of heat exchange chamber 41, that expands the mixture applied to its input from conduit 42. Chamber 41 includes a plurality of interior tubes 43 connected between conduit 42 and passages 31, 34 and 35 around which high temperature gases pass, these being supplied to the exchanger from the engine exhaust via piping 44. Other means of heating the mixture deriving from conduit 42 to cause its expansion, such as a resistance wire, may be employed. Expansion of the liquid and gaseous materials within chamber 41, causes the fluid to enter bores 21-24 from orifices 25-28 at high velocity to enhance mixing in the bores.

Conduit 42 is ultimately responsive to a combination of moving air feed through scoop 45 by fan 50 (located at the front end of the auto) and the additive or lubricant supply in reservoir 46. By positioning scoop 45 directly behind motor cooling fan 50, high velocity air is supplied to chamber 47 to promote mixing therein. Further, this increases the mixture velocity entering bores 21-24 through ports 25-28 to provide thorough mixing of the liquid and gaseous contents therein. Air from scoop 45 and additive from reservoir 46 are fed to mixing chamber 47 via valves 48 and 49, respectively; the former utilized to control the air pressure supplied to chamber 47, and the latter to vary the proportion .of additive utilized.

Downstream of chamber 47, where the contents of scoop 45 and reservoir 46 are interspersed according to the desired ratio, magnetically activated, normally closed valve 51, of conventional design, is located. Wound about the piston of valve 51 is solenoid 52, connected in series circuit with battery 53 and normally open microswitch 54. Microswitch 54 is driven by throttle 55 on carburetor 13 so that its contacts are open when the motor is idling. Thus, the flow of air from reservoir 45 into bores 21-24 is blocked when the engine is idle to preclude stalling that otherwise occurs when the mixture supplied to the combustion chamber is excessively lean. Upon activation of throttle 55, the contacts of microswitch 54 are closed, and current is supplied to solenoid 52 from battery 53 to open valve 51 and permit the passage through it of the selected air additive mixture.

From valve 51, fluid passes into heater 41 via conduit 42. To insure unidirectional fluid flow into exchanger 41 from valve 51, ie to prevent flow from the exchanger to valve 51, swing check valve 56 is included interiorly of conduit 42. Without valve 56, the high pressure built up in heat exchanger 41 would cause reverse fluid flow to prevent coupling of its contents into passages 31-35 and bores 21-24.

Reference is now made to FIGURE 2 .of the drawings, a partial side sectional view of mixing chamber 47. Chamber 47 comprises sleeve 61 having radially directed aper tures 62 and 63; through the former aperture, the output of valve 49 passes while stem 64 of valve 48 is threaded into the latter. Within sleeve 61 tapering, circularly cross sectioned, thin walled nozzle 65 is located directly downstream from rotatable flow passage disc 66 of valve 48.

. (For purposes of clarity, disc 66 is not illustrated in cross section and is shown slightly rotated.)

Air passing disc 66 from scoop 45 is entrained within tube 65 and passes from it into the remainder 67 of chamber 47 via vanes 68 and 69, positioned at the end of the tube. As seen from arrows 71, FIGURE 3, vanes 68 and 69 are rotatable about the center of the tube end interior to sleeve 41 to introduce turbulence into the air supplied to the mixing chamber 67. This enables liquid deriving from valve 49 to be thoroughly aerated, thereby providing a very uniform air-additive mixture at .outlet orifice 82 of chamber 67.

Reference is now made to FIGURE 4 of the drawings, a cross sectional view of valve 49, having conduits 72 and 73 connected at its side and bottom to chambers 46 and 47, respectively. Conduit 72 empties into chamber 74, within valve 49, which chamber selectively communicates with conduit 73 via passage 75. To control the amount of fluid flow in passage 75, the pointed end of stem 76 is translated relative to the beveled surface 77 between chamber 74 and passage 75 by rotation with threads 78. With :stem 76 translated to its furthest extent, its pointed end seats on surface 77 to completely block flow through conduit 73.

To adjust stem 76 in a manner similar to a screw, cap 79 is selectively removed by rotating it on threads 81, on the exterior surface of the valve.

I have found that an additive mixture of one part fine upper lubricating oil to three parts naphtha gasoline in reservoir 46 causes a reduction of approximately 33 /3 in gasoline consumption for varied driving conditions. Further, a 60% reduction in carbon deposits has resulted with the same mixture. The device also aids in completely lubricating the upper cylinder walls,valve guides and upper piston rings of an internal combustion engine because the additive is effectively sprayed onto these parts. The additive mixture quantity utilized is quite small, one gallon per 5000 miles. For many purposes, however, it has been found that there is no need to utilize an additive, the vertically flowing air supplied through ports 21-24 being sufiicient to improve performance characteristics to a large extent.

While I have described and illustrated one specific embodiment of my invention, it will be clear that variations of the details of construction which are specifically illustrated and described may be resorted to without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an internal combustion engine having carbureting means for producing a fuel-air mixture, a device for improving engine performance and substantially controlling the formation of carbon and carbon monoxide in engine exhaust emissions comprising:

means for providing :a stream of air, said means comprising an air scoop positioned behind a fan;

a supply of liquid engine additive comprising a mixture of a fine upper lubricating oil and a fractional distillate of petroleum, said distillate comprising a greater volume of said mixture than said oil;

means for mixing said strearnof air and said liquid engine additive to produce an air-additive mixture;

combining means located downstream of said carbureting means for thoroughly combining said fuel-air mixture and said air-additive mixture; and

means for vortically supplying said air-additive mixture to said combining means.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said distillate is liquid naphtha.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein said liquid engine additive comprises three parts by volume of naphtha liquid to one part by volume of lubricating oil.

4. The device of claim 3 further comprising:

normally open magnetic valve means positioned in the air-additive flow path between said means for mixin and said combining means,

electrical circuit control means responsive to engine rpm. for energizing said magnetic valve means to a closed position, thereby blocking the supply of airadditive mixture to the combining means when said engine is running below a predetermined r.p.m.

5. The device of claim 4, further comprising heating I means interposed in the air-additive flow path between said magnetic valve means and said combining means for expanding and substantially pressurizing said air-additive mixture prior to entry into said combining means.

6. A device for improving performance of internal combustion engines of the type having carbureting means for producing a fuel-air mixture flow, comprising:

means for providing a stream of high velocity air;

a supply of liquid engine additive comprising a mixture of fine upper lubrication oil and a substantially greater amount of naphtha;

means for mixing said additive and said stream of air to produce a resultant fluid;

means for directing said fluid in a vortical flow pattern, said pattern being disposed so as to perpendicularly intersect said fuel-air mixture flow.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,430,803 10/1922 Dunn et al 48-180 X 1,459,507 6/ 1923 House.

1,477,988 12/1923 Wehr et al. 48-180 1,597,605 8/1926 Lee 48-180 (Other references on following page) 5 6 Wilka 48-180 2,326,598 8/1943 Acosta 48-180 Moore. 2,790,709 4/ 1957 August 48-180 X Moore et a1 48-180 3,022,053 2/1962 Hoyt 261-18 Parker 261-18 X Stancke 4 1 0 5 HARRY B. THORNTON, Primary Examiner. Gol'leskl 48-180 RONALD R. WEAVER, Examiner. Skok et a1 48-180 Curran. 

6. A DEVICE FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES OF THE TYPE HAVING CARBURETING MEANS FOR PRODUCING A FUEL-AIR MIXTURE FLOW, COMPRISING: MEANS FOR PROVIDING A STREAM OF HIGH VELOCITY AIR; A SUPPLY OF LIQUID ENGINE ADDITIVE COMPRISING A MIXTURE OF FINE UPPER LUBRICATION OIL AND A SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER AMOUNT OF NAPHTHA; MEANS FOR MIXING SAID ADDITIVE AND SAID STREAM OF AIR TO PRODUCE A RESULTANT FLUID; MEANS FOR DIRECTING SAID FLUID IN A VORTICAL FLOW PATTERN, SAID PATTERN BEING DISPOSED SO AS TO PERPENDICULARLY INTERSECT SAID FUEL-AIR MIXTURE FLOW. 